Enough Is Enough

The day after she arrives home, Jaynie Studenmund buys a set of dumbbells. (She's adding an upper-body strength program to her regular running routine.) She also sends her nanny to a health-food store with a grocery list that includes baked chips and apple butter, and she purges the kitchen of greasy snacks. "I'm never eating margarine again," she vows. She adds a few health books to her reading list and a note to her To Do list: Buy new music, something soothing to listen to in the car. She also plans to get more than four hours of sleep a night. She'll continue to push herself, of course, but she's no longer going to run on fumes.

Rob and Jeannine Hallam plan to take back their weekends. That will require Rob to be more productive during the week and to start saying "no," or at least "not now," to all of the great ideas that people pitch to him. Come Saturday morning, the couple plans to visit a farmer's market and to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables: Healthier lunches and snacks will help Rob keep his energy level up at work. And by giving up caffeine and alcohol, they hope to improve the quality of their sleep. Rob plans to start taking breathing breaks to manage stress at work. "I want to use self-focus to calm my system down," he says. He and Jeannine are confident that these changes will last. Because they attended Canyon Ranch together, they can help each other to reinforce their new habits.

These Canyon Ranch graduates understand that change -- even incremental change -- won't be easy. There will be missteps and backsliding along the way, and their progress will be modest. But, as Dan Baker would say, they have made a good start on their change journey. And, in a year or two, they will be ready to recommit to change -- or, perhaps, to change course again. Even the best plans have a limited shelf life.

When in doubt, Baker advises his acolytes, take a step back and remember the goal that you're pursuing. The journey may be grueling, but the destination remains relatively clear-cut. "At the end of your life," he says, "you want to be able to look back with few regrets and to feel good about the choices you made. That way, you can go in peace, knowing that you've invested your life and your life's energy wisely."

Sidebar: Can the Center Hold?

Barry Baker
Title: President and COO, USA Networks
Age: 46
First Visit to Canyon Ranch: 1990

Back in the summer of 1990, Barry Baker was a deeply trouble man. "I wasn't a human being," he says now. "I was a human doing." As he built River City Broadcasting, his St. Louis-based media startup, into a chain of 10 television stations and 24 radio stations, he was working 70 hours a week (including weekends) as well as during vacations. His schedule was full -- but he felt empty inside. So Baker, who was approaching age 40, flew to Canyon Ranch to reflect on what was missing from his life. He realized that he had a problem not with his calendar but with his identity. "I was making the first real money in my life, but my life didn't have meaning. I asked myself, 'What do I to be remembered for?' I wanted to contribute to the growth of people, not just to the growth of assets."

He began delegating at work, and he cut his workweek back to 55 hours. With his newfound time, he carved out a personal life. He took up squash, hiking, and skiing, and he joined several local charity boards. He chose to end his first. unhappy marriage. and a few years boards. He chose to end his first, unhappy marriage and a few years later, he remarried and became a stepfather.

Today Baker faces a different question: Can the center hold? In 1996, he sold River City, which he had started with $5.5 million, to Clair Broadcast Group for $1.2 billion. Last February, he quit Sinclair to join his friend Barry Diller at USA Networks, where he is now president and COO. The position offers a rare opportunity to explore the marriage of television and the Internet. But it is also very demanding, requiring him to commute from Baltimore to New York and Los Angeles. Baker insists that this stage of his career "won't be about work." He has established a work rhythm that is vigorous yet reasonable: a few 14-hour days, followed by long weekends with his family. "You need downtime -- to be happy personally and to think. If you're ever going to grow, you have to allow time for thinking."